Officer Gaetano Fernandes was patrolling near Liberty and Main streets in Little Ferry around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, when he noticed a Volkswagen Jetta with a tinted license plate cover, as detailed in the police report.
The vehicle made a left turn onto Route 46 west without using a turn signal, the police papers said. That’s when Fernandes stopped the vehicle and identified the driver as Khalil M. Brooks-Clarke, of District Heights, MD.
While unable to tell the officer the name of the store he was coming from, Brooks-Clarke said he was in town from Maryland and was staying at the Congress Inn with his brother, who was in the passenger’s seat.
Officers Serio and Licameli then arrived on scene for assistance, and through an investigation found a hatchet in a black holster in the driver’s side door panel, a collapsable baton, and a black backpack in the trunk.
Inside of the backpack officers found a black SAR 9 9mm handgun loaded with a high-capacity magazine containing 17 bullets, 12 hollow points, and 5 FMJ bullets. Brooks-Clarke’s brother tried to claim the firearm as his own, but Brooks-Clarke would later admit that he bought the gun illegally in Delaware.